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dangling pointer
dangling pointer
Noun
pl: dangling pointers
This term is a technical jargon used exclusively in computer science and software engineering, specifically regarding manual memory management in languages like C and C++. It describes a critical state of instability where a reference exists to a memory location that is no longer valid, often leading to segmentation faults or unpredictable program behavior.
Because it refers to a specific logical error in memory allocation, it is distinct from a memory leak, where memory is forgotten but not freed. A dangling pointer is the opposite: the memory is freed, but the reference is remembered.
Meanings
Related Words
pointermemoryaddressallocationdeallocationheapstacksegmentation faultcrashbugleakmemory leakreferencedereferencegarbage collectionfreenewdeletevariablescopelifetimebuffer overflowcorruptioncompilerruntimedebuggerpointer arithmeticvirtual memorypagingsegmentationoffsethandledescriptorownershipborrowingsanitizeroverflowunderflowbit flipendiannessbyteabstractionencapsulationobjectinstanceconstructordestructor